


a brief intermission

by lethargicProfessor



Series: Ghost!AU [2]
Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, ghost au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-05 03:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5359256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lethargicProfessor/pseuds/lethargicProfessor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of ghost!au drabbles that don't fit within the main story</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> kandayuu asked:  
> fic or treat! what say you to more ghost au, since that is about as halloween as it gets :p

 

“Lenalee, your ghosts are bullying me.”

Lenalee stared at her notes, brow furrowed. She had two options: ignore Allen and continue studying, or help him out.

If she ignored him, the situation would escalate. She could handle her best friend passive-aggressively arguing with intangible beings, but if they got any rougher she would probably regret it. However, if she stopped to help him out, she would definitely get caught up in whatever shenanigans her brother and Lavi had set up against Allen.

She was just starting the chapter on criminal defenses, too. “On a scale of one to ten how attacked are you feeling?”

“I was at a solid seven until you  _memed_  at me.” The distaste rolled off his tongue. “Now I’m at a fifteen, at least.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t text solely in doge meme when it first came out.” That had been a nightmare.

Allen sniffed indignantly. “Let’s not bring up the past.”

Lenalee closed her book, giving up for the time being, and wandered over to Allen. He was holding the remote to the TV to his chest, glowering at the screen, apparently channel-surfing on its own. “See? I am a victim.”

“Clearly,” she responded dryly, prying the remote from his grip. “What were you watching, anyways?”

“A fascinating documentary on the social hierarchy of the post-Edwardian era. Or I  _was_ , until someone decided to change the channel.” Allen sank back in his seat, an affronted pout on his face.

The whiteboard she had set up for communication rattled, and she glanced up at the red scrawl left behind. ”’ _He was watching Downton Abbey_.’ Huh.”

Allen’s pout stubbornly persisted, but she noted the tips of his ears turned red anyways. “I didn’t know you watched Downton Abbey, Allen.”

“Period dramas are visually stunning and have very subtle nuances to them. Also I like period dramas so bite me.” Lenalee smiled, ruffling his hair.

“’ _Yuu doesn’t like period dramas_ ’,” the whiteboard informed them, and the television fritzed in response.

“It’s not my fault Lenalee’s brother is an uncultured twa—“

With remarkable accuracy, the dry erase marker stuck to the whiteboard sailed through the air, landing squarely in Allen’s open mouth.

Lenalee pressed her knuckles to her lips in an effort to keep her laughter in check. It wouldn’t do any good to encourage Kanda’s behavior.

Allen’s face looked hilarious, though. She should have taken a picture.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked:  
> So sorry, on mobile and it didnt display properly ♡ fic or treat! Ghost au pretty please ♡

 

Since discovering Kanda sort of unofficially lived in her house – their house, really – Lenalee had been working on improving the relationship she had with her brother.

Not that they weren’t on good terms, exactly. Kanda was family, and she had always held fond memories of him. She figured he felt the same way, since he had been watching over her for years.

But she had to admit she didn’t know much about him, other than the quiet anecdotes shared by Komui or Alma. So, filled with determination, she set out to get to know her brother.

The small problem of communicating with the dead was solved, surprisingly, by Kanda himself.

She sat in her kitchen, nursing a mug of tea, laptop and notebook in front of her, brainstorming ideas for more efficient communication. With Komui’s help, she could maybe build a spirit box, but he would undoubtedly raise questions that she wasn’t ready to answer. She could buy one, but dropping that much money on tech that might not work didn’t seem worth it.

The pages of her notebook fluttered lightly, and one of them (probably Lavi) tapped a ‘:)’ on her keyboard. She laughed, sipping her tea. She had briefly considered using the laptop to communicate, or even automatic writing like before, but neither option was very practical. The ghosts near her computer for extend periods tended to mess up her screen, and automatic writing would take too long to hold a proper conversation.

Annoyed, Lenalee dropped her head on the table, pressing her palms against the warm mug. “Yuu? Are you in here?”

The dry erase calendar on her fridge rattled, its marker clattering to the floor at the motion. She made a move to stand, but froze when she found the marker back in its clip, and a sloppy ‘I’m here’ written on the board.

(Lenalee tried explaining the experience to Allen later, but failed to find the words. It was like a glitch, like a jump in a video or a stutter in a song. In less time than it took her to stand, it was done.)

“Can you do that again?” She asked hesitantly, eyes trained on the board. Her eyes watered but she didn’t blink, straining to catch the movement of the marker, or at least the words on the board.

Again, she missed it, the words appearing in the span of a blink. It felt as if the world had clipped around her.

‘stop bringing ur dumb friend over’

Well.

Getting to know him was a work in progress. They’d work on it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked:  
> Fic or Treat! Ghost AU

Timothy was not supposed to be in the house.

As a matter of fact, Timothy was supposed to be waiting outside while Allen picked up something for Lenalee from her house. It wasn’t supposed to take very long; five minutes at most Allen had promised, leaving Tim out in the car while he hurried in.

It suited Tim fine. He was having a very important conversation with Jan Russell, and he needed absolute silence to properly respond.

Five minutes dragged, and after ten, Timothy started to worry. He had heard him and Lenalee whispering about ghosts, but ghosts weren’t real.  _Obviously_. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check on him.

Annoyed, he called Allen’s phone, scowling as it began ringing inside the glove compartment. “Great.”

Heaving a sigh, Tim snatched the car keys from the ignition and walked to the house. “Allen!”

The curtains in the window fluttered, but Allen didn’t come to the door. “Jeez…”

He marched into the house without preamble, taking a second to look around the place. It was neat, but too clean, and didn’t really feel like home. It was cold, too. Rubbing his arms, he walked full into the foyer, closing the door behind him. “Allen?”

Something clinked in the kitchen, so Timothy followed the sound. “You left your phone in the car again, dummy.”

The kitchen was empty, the curtains waving gently. Suspicious, Tim approached the window, frowning as he noticed it was latched shut. Weird. “Allen!”

He checked the kitchen again, and finding nothing, began walking away when a smudge of red caught his eye. He turned back, staring at the dry erase board stuck to the fridge. The words ‘OUTSIDE’ had been written in big, loopy letters.

He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed.

Shrugging, he walked down the hall, following it to a wide den with sliding glass doors hidden by blinds. He didn’t see anyone, but nearly jumped out of his skin at the pounding against the glass. Scrambling for a weapon, his hands closed around a book.

He held the book over his head, taking a steadying breath as he yanked the blinds open.

Allen froze from the other side of the door, face smushed against the glass. “Tim?”

“You asshole!” Timothy wheezed, dropping the book on the floor. “What are you doing?”

“I got locked out,” Allen replied stiffly. His jaw was clenched, and Tim could see a muscle twitching at his temple. “Open up, please.”

“How’d you get locked out?” Tim fussed with the lock for a second, dragging the door open. “Why were you even outside? Ya weirdo.”

Allen stared at him, ruffling his hair as he walked in. “Don’t ask. Please. And don’t mention it to Lenalee.”

Timothy shrugged, closing the door again. “No promises.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked:  
> fic or treat fic or treat give me something ghosty to eat

 

“We’re not doing the candy thing, right?” Allen asked, eyeing the bags of candy he was helping lug into Lenalee’s house.

“The candy thing as in giving out candy? No. That’s just asking for trouble.” They dumped the bags of food on Lenalee’s kitchen table, snacks and candy spilling out onto the table itself.

“Good.” Allen grabbed a king-sized bag of candy, tearing at it with his teeth. “Because I hope you realize I’m not giving these back.”

Lenalee rolled her eyes, setting aside more bags of candy and a box of cookies. “Do you need help with that?”

“I got it.” With a grunt, Allen ripped the bag open, candy spilling out onto the floor.  “Oops.”

The sound of ghostly laughter echoed down the hall, making the hair stand at the back of Lenalee’s neck. Allen shuddered, gathering the candy up in his shirt. “That’s new.”

“That’s Lavi, I think.” She couldn’t recall Kanda making much noise, but Lavi liked to rattle around. Shrugging, she tossed away the plastic bags, gathering an armful of snacks. “Are we starting with the spoopy movies, or the spooky movies first?”

Allen followed, using his sweater as a makeshift bag to carry the rest of their food to the den. “I think we should go from least scary to most scary.”

“Sounds good.” They had gathered blankets and pillows from around the house in the den before their shopping trip, their fort/nest ready for maximum Halloween enjoyment. “Also, we’re not watching  _It_. I know it was on your list, but it’s not happening.”

“What?” Allen whined, collapsing on a stack of pillows, snacks tumbling out of his grasp. “Why not?”

“Kanda hates clowns.” The board, relocated to the den for the night, swung ominously, Kanda’s ‘YEAH’ appearing seconds later.

Allen sniffed, affronted, dumping his snacks out in order to settle down comfortably. “That’s rude. Clowns are cool.”

“They’re terrifying, Allen. You’re just biased.” Lenalee tutted under her breath, pulling up a list of movies on her TV. “Ready?”

“Absolutely.” He settled back against the pillows, an array of candy in a pile on his chest as the first movie began to play.

They got through three movies and half of their candy stash without incident, the dry erase board rattling every so often when either Lavi or Kanda (but mostly Lavi) felt the need to put in his two cents. It wasn’t hard to ignore them, though; the movies were interesting, the snacks were deliciously unhealthy, and even if a movie didn’t catch their attention, Lenalee and Allen’s conversation made things entertaining.

Evidently, Lavi and Kanda didn’t like being ignored, not now that they actually had a way to communicate. When the board stopped being useful, they resorted to other means. The room got blindingly cold, so much so that Lenalee had to pause the movie to drag more blankets into the nest, muttering darkly at her uninvited roommates to knock it off.

In a bid to piss off Kanda, Allen cuddled close to Lenalee under the blankets, pressing close together to chase away the chill. It seemed to work for a moment, the cold disappearing almost immediately.

They returned to their movies, now firmly in horror movie territory. Allen liked watching those kinds of movies, and so did Lenalee to some extent, but knowing there were actual ghosts in the immediate vicinity added a creepiness factor neither had anticipated.

A sudden blood-curdling scream cut through the air, jolting both of them to their feet. Allen’s heart hammered in his throat, and Lenalee uttered a short scream before the same ghostly laughter from earlier echoed in the room.

“Fucking pricks,” Allen muttered under his breath, shaking his head as the laughter petered away, leaving behind a smug sense of satisfaction.  


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gosh s-sorry >.

 

Komui dropped by without warning one Friday afternoon, almost kicking the door down in his excitement as he called out to his sister.

It would be great, normally. Lenalee loved having her brother around. Except normally she had at  _least_  a few hours of warning. As such, when Komui burst through the front door, she was still in her pajamas, whiteboard on the coffee table, books detailing various paranormal phenomena spread around her.

She choked, flailing a bit uselessly as she tried to figure out what would be easiest to hide; the books were quite heavy, but Komui was sharp when he wanted to be. He would notice the writing on the board wasn’t hers in a second.

“Lenalee?” He questioned, the sharp glint in his eye betraying his cheerful demeanor. “What’s all this?”

“Uh…” She snapped her fingers absently, latching blindly onto a lie. “Um. Project. Yeah. Working on a project.” She stood, casually kicking the nearest books shut. “You should have called ahead, Komui! I would have cleaned up a bit.”

“Sorry,” he murmured, bending down to pick up a couple of books. “Parapsychology? Why are you doing a project on that?”

“It’s not for me.” She snatched the whiteboard up, erasing Kanda’s last message furiously. “Um, it’s Timothy’s project. Allen asked if I’d be interested in helping, and it sounded interesting, so I said yes!”

Komui raised an eyebrow at her, setting the books neatly on the coffee table. “Isn’t Timothy nine? Why is he doing a project on parapsychology?”

A soft laugh echoed down the hall, and Lenalee pushed down a curse. Lavi needed to work on his timing. “The project is about…ghosts? For Halloween? They have Day of the Dead and stuff, other celebrations in different cultures, so I was…trying to find information…” She trailed off, biting her cheek as the laugh drifted in again.

“Is someone else here?” Komui asked, peering curiously into the hall.

Lenalee shook her head frantically, hoping Lavi got the message. “It must be the TV or something.”

“Oh…” Komui shrugged, setting his bags down. “Well…how about dinner out? My treat?”

“Sure…!” She smiled, hoping it looked more genuine than she felt it was, and skipped to her room. “Let me shower and get ready!”

“Take your time!”

She slipped into her room and locked the door, looking around as if she could spot her ghosts. “Knock it off!” She hissed, crossing her arms. “Leave Komui alone, I mean it! Kanda, you should know better!”

Her music box shut softly, and she took that as an acknowledgement. “Behave!”

* * *

Dinner was nice, and catching up with Komui was always fun. Even though she had only met his coworkers a couple of times, she felt like she knew them from his stories.

“I’m going to miss seeing them, actually,” Komui murmured during a lull, poking at his food half-heartedly.

Lenalee frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m…” Komui squirmed, looking up with a sheepish look on his face. “I’m taking a sabbatical, sort of. I wanted to be closer to home and to be with you more, so I asked for a break. Isn’t that great?”

Suddenly, Lenalee’s tongue felt too heavy in her mouth. Still, she managed to slide a smile into place. “T-that’s great, Komui… Are you going to be working on anything?”

“Actually, I got a position at the university. It’s not much, not like the labs, but I’ll be home a lot more.” She must not have looked very convincing; he frowned, leaning in. “Is that alright?”

“Yeah…” She swallowed thickly, staring at her food. “I just…I don’t want you to give up your job just for me.”

“I’d give up a thousand jobs if it meant I could be around more.” He reached across the table, tapping her forehead. “I shouldn’t have left you alone as long as I did.”

She was touched, really. She missed her brother a lot, and it would be nice to have someone else in the house. (Someone living, anyways.) But therein was the problem. Kanda and Lavi did not like being ignored, not now that they knew they had someone to talk to. If Komui was around…

“Something wrong?” He asked, brow furrowed. He probably expected a better reaction.

A prickle of regret made her push her food away. She  _could_  tell him the truth, but Komui rarely wanted to talk about Kanda. If he found out that he was a ghost haunting their house, who knows what he would do? Not only that, but he might not even believe her.

“Sorry, I’m fine.” Her smile was strained this time, but real enough. She’d work things out.


	6. one little taste

Lenalee woke up at four in the afternoon to frantic buzzing at her bedside.

Groaning softly, she heaved herself out of bed, reaching for her phone blindly. It took her a few seconds to decipher what she was looking at through the fever and congestion, and a few minutes more to make it make sense in her head.

_[Be there in 5]_ the message read, followed by a string of blank boxes she assumed were emoji. _[Also I need hands_ ]

“What the fuck, Allen?” She asked her empty room, ignoring the snickers that echoed down the hall. Gathering her wits, she dragged herself to the front door, attempting to smooth her bedhead down into something halfway decent.

Allen arrived right on time, with an armful of candy in shades of red and pink and a smug grin on his face. “Candygram for Miss Lee?”

“You’re a nerd,” Lenalee sniffled, holding the door open for him. “Is that all the candy you got today?”

“Of course not,” Allen scoffed, making a beeline to the living room. He dumped the boxes on the coffee table unceremoniously, knocking off a box of tissues in the process. “Half are yours. I was asked to deliver them. How are you feeling, by the way?”

“Sore. I hurt.” She shrugged, making her way over to sit cross-legged at the table. Allen set the box of tissues on her lap. “Thanks… Komui came by at lunch to check on me. Even Kanda and Lavi have been keeping quiet.”

The pile of candy on the table rattled in response. Allen clicked his tongue sharply, sliding his bag off his shoulder as he took a seat. “Right, I’m sure that’s been a nice change. I have gifts and such from your adoring fans.”

Lenalee rolled her eyes, nudging the boxes on the table hesitantly. “More than this?”

“Well, yeah.” Allen hummed, sliding a neatly wrapped purple box out of his bag. “Though, to be fair, this isn’t a Valentine’s Day gift so much as it is a birthday gift, but since you’re sick…”

“You didn’t have to, Allen,” she murmured, taking to box carefully. It was heavier than she expected, and she carefully pried the tape off.

“I’m still taking you out to dinner, obviously,” he continued, sorting the boxes of chocolate on the table into two piles. “But I can’t do that if you keep getting sick.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.” Lenalee slipped the box out of its wrapping, prying the lid open with a soft gasp.

The orange scarf was deceptively soft, its fringes neatly knotted to avoid fraying. Allen fidgeted, setting another box in the growing pile. “If you don’t like it, we can return it. I just saw you looking at them the last time we went shopping and so…”

“I love it, Allen,” she smiled, setting the scarf to the side. A criminology book followed, and a small case that opened to reveal a butterfly knife. “Um…?”

“If we’re going to catch a murderer, we can’t go out empty- handed, right?” Allen said, sliding Lenalee’s pile of chocolates over. “Since I can’t convince you to not do the dangerous thing, I am fully committed to enabling you.”

“You’re the best.” Lenalee tucked her gifts back into their box, setting it beside her tissues. “Thank you, Allen.”

“You’re welcome,” he smiled brightly, ears going red at the attention. “I love you, Lena.”

“Me too.”

Someone – and Lenalee suspected it might have been Kanda – knocked the boxes of chocolates onto Allen, rattling the furniture ominously. Allen sputtered as the boxes tumbled over him, the moment effectively ruined.

Huffing, Allen cleared the boxes away, ignoring the chilling laughter filling the room. “What assholes.”

“Just sometimes…” Lenalee grabbed a handful of tissues, leaning back wearily. “Have you talked to Link yet?”

“Talked to him? Of course. Asked him to be a spy for us? Uh…no.” Allen sprawled out on the floor, tearing into a box of chocolates with his teeth. “Not quite sure how to breach that, actually.”

“He’s not spying for us,” Lenalee corrected, picking open a box of homemade chocolates from Lou Hua. “He’s just…you know. Keeping us in the loop.”

“I’m going out on a limb here,” Allen muttered around a mouthful of chocolate. “But I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.”

“So is _murder_!”

Allen held his hands up in surrender. “Yeah, yeah, I know that. I’m not fighting you here. I’m going to help, I just don’t know if Link would be willing to do it.”

“We’ll find a way to convince him, then.” Nodding assertively, Lenalee delved into her chocolate. “In the meantime, I’m gonna eat all of this and watch a movie.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”


End file.
